North-African asylum seekers flee to Italy

The small Sicilian island of Lampedusa has seen the arrival of 7,500 asylum seekers from Tunisia and Libya since mid February.

Transcript

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ALI MOORE, PRESENTER: The unrest in North Africa over the past month is causing plenty of concern in Italy.

Over the past 24 hours, 1,500 migrants fleeing Tunisia and Libya have landed on the tiny Sicilian island of Lampedusa, adding to the more than 6,000 who have arrived since mid February. With just 850 beds, the island's holding centre is under-equipped to cope with the arrivals.

The Italian Government wants the rest of the European Union to take in some of the would-be migrants from North Africa, with the EU's border control agency estimating that up to 1.5 million people might be heading for Italian shores

Europe correspondent Emma Alberici travelled to Lampedusa for Lateline and filed this report.

EMMA ALBERICI, REPORTER: It's becoming an all-too-familiar sighting for the Italian coastguard: old wooden boats crammed full of Tunisians fleeing their homeland and headed for the tiny Sicilian island of Lampedusa. Just 130 kilometres across the Mediterranean, Lampedusa is closer to North Africa than it is to Italy. It's long been considered the gateway to Europe.

The Italian coastguard has tonight found seven boats on its radar. So we've come out here to see if they're OK and whether they need to be rescued, given some sort of assistance to come in to shore. And while we've come out here, we've discovered this boat, which had before now gone completely unnoticed. There are at least 50 people on board, and we've seen also a young boy of about four or five years old and at least two women.

For a boat like this travelling at full speed, it will take 28 hours to reach Italy from Tunisia, but most are at sea for two or three days. It's the ones they don't find that troubles Captain Vittorio Allesandro.

VITTORIO ALLESANDRO, ITALIAN COASTGUARD (voiceover translation): Naturally we're all concerned because weather conditions out there are not good. We know what we can do; the worry is about what we can't. Two people have already been lost in the sea, but what about those we can't see who don't hit our radar? There is a real possibility that there are many more out there that we couldn't save because we don't know they were out there.

EMMA ALBERICI: As day breaks on this island paradise, a shocking reality dawns on those who've risked their lives to escape the chaos of Tunisia. 1,000 in one night flocking to a holding centre that sleeps just 800 and was already at full capacity.

They wait here for a flight that will take them to be processed in other parts of Italy that have already taken in 7,000 Tunisian migrants since the fall of president Ben Ali. The Italian Government has declared a state of emergency.

The United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR in Lampedusa, is worried about the absence of boats coming from Libya.

BARBARA MOLINARIO, UNHCR: We haven't had a float from Libya, although we need to be ready in case there should be a flow from Libya. We know that there are persons of concern to the UNHCR in Libya, mainly people from Somalia, from Eretria, from Sudan that used to land in Lampedusa until 2009.

What we are advocating is that governments when they are evacuating their own nationals also keep in mind that there are people there that cannot go to their embassy, that don't have this luxury of being evacuated by their own countries, as they're fleeing their own countries, and they should keep them in mind in the evacuation plans.

EMMA ALBERICI: In 2008, 36,000 asylum seekers came to Lampedusa from Eritrea, Somalia and Nigeria, boarding boats in Libya. Then, Silvio Berlusconi signed a friendship agreement with Moamar Gaddafi. Rome handed $5 billion to Tripoli, and in return, Libya stopped the boats. The UNHCR is now concerned about the plight of those sub-Saharan Africans who can no longer flee to Europe through Libya.

BARBARA MOLINARIO: Right now what we hear is that they are inside their homes and they are trapped. They're having a really hard time getting out of the house, accessing food and health care and this is because they are scared of the repercussions, as there were sub-Saharan Africans used in Gaddafi's militias.

EMMA ALBERICI: As last night's boats continue to make their way to the port, the Customs police intercept one fishing boat so small it beggars belief that 81 people crossed the Mediterranean on board. The only woman among them is one of three suffering from hypothermia and transported to hospital.

Lampedusa's mayor Bernadino De Rubeis is asking Europe to help shoulder the burden and open its doors to those caught up in the African rebellion.

BERNARDINO DE RUBEIS, LAMPEDUSA MAYOR (voiceover translation): My concern is that Italy cannot cope with this situation on its own. We cannot continue to take all these people in. Italy can't be left alone to deal with this crisis. At some point Europe will need to pitch in to help these poor people of whom there are so, so many.

EMMA ALBERICI: As for the 5,000 people who live on Lampedusa, they're praying that the tourists from the north aren't put off by the migrants hailing from the south.

RESIDENT (voiceover translation): We hope that Italy is not going to be left alone to deal with this big problem, that the European Union, even America, gives us a hand here.

RESIDENT II (voiceover translation): The island is so small and we don't know what's heading our way. It might be Libyans. Libyans are scary. Not like the Tunisians, who are nice and friendly. But we don't know what sort of people the Libyans really are.

RESIDENT III (voiceover translation): What I hear is that people are concerned about the island's tourism industry. They say tourists won't come because they're scared of the immigrants. The migrants are scaring the tourists away.

EMMA ALBERICI: In the past seven weeks, more than 80 Tunisian vessels have been dumped in what's come to resemble a boat cemetery on Lampedusa. There are more at the port waiting to be destroyed.

The race is on to find a solution to the crisis before the summer approaches. Fishing and tourism are the only sources of income here.